A method and an apparatus of this generic type are known from Austrian Patent Disclosure AT-B 408 959. In it, from a bundle of loose, random wires, a smaller partial bundle is first extracted with the aid of a preportioning device and put into the operative range of a plurality of combing-out devices. For ordering the wires in the partial bundle, the wires are individually engaged in succession by the combing-out devices and combed out. Next, the combed-out wire rolls and/or slides individually by gravity into the single layer. This method and apparatus have the disadvantage that wires with a ribbed surface, as is usual for reinforcing steels, are tangled in such a way that they cannot be reliably separated into individual wires in a single work step, that is, with only a portioning device.
From Austrian Patent Disclosure AT-B 408 960, a method and an apparatus for extricating and separating steel wires that have been cut into lengths are known. Here, first a plurality of wires are taken from a bundle and put in an intermediate repository, which is located in the operative range of a separator device. For separating them, the wires are taken from the intermediate repository individually and in succession by the separator device with the aid of a magnetic force and delivered with a mutual lateral spacing to a downstream conveyor device; the wires are then stripped off by the separator device in a controlled way. This method and apparatus have the disadvantage that wires with a ribbed surface, as are usual in reinforcing steels, are tangled in such a way that they cannot be reliably separated by magnetic force in a single work step, that is, without a combing-out device. Moreover, this method can be employed only for magnetic materials.